SCN News No 36 - UNSCN

www.unsystem.org/scn 51
35 th SCN Session Recommendations
The participants at the 35th SCN Session, in the Working Groups and Constituency meetings, discussed a set of recommendations
that was later agreed by email and in the SCN Steering Committee. We have reprinted here the one-page
Executive Summary, the full set of recommendations, as well as detailed notes with programme and policy guidance.
UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM
Standing Committee on Nutrition
RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE SCN 35 TH SESSION
"ACCELERATING THE REDUCTION OF MATERNAL AND CHILD UNDERNUTRITION"
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The 35 th Session of the SCN held in Hanoi in March 2008, which focussed on accelerating the reduction of maternal and
child undernutrition, made the following recommendations:
Recognizing that:
• The global burden of maternal and child undernutrition remains unconscionably large, and is the single greatest constraint
facing global development efforts.
• A renewed and strengthened evidence base exists for a set of essential nutrition interventions that if effectively targeted
to mothers and children from conception to two years of age, could prevent at least a quarter of child deaths under 36
months of age, and reduce the prevalence of stunting by about a third.
• Although this important set of interventions cannot replace socio-economic development, they can help accelerate the
reduction of maternal and child undernutrition, especially when main-streamed into efforts to tackle poverty, improve
food security and livelihood support, and strengthen health service delivery.
• Remarkably little is being done to tackle the problem of maternal and child undernutrition, especially in the countries
most affected. Increased mobilization is therefore needed at all levels of society in order to act at scale with this set of
essential nutrition interventions.
• The recent increases in food prices and the reduction of grain stocks to a 30 year low threaten the capacity to provided
assistance and ensure the right to food, especially in those nations showing least progress towards achieving the nonincome
targets of MDG1.
• Global nutrition leadership needs to be further strengthened in order to facilitate technical and policy consensus that
will permit accelerated reduction of maternal and child undernutrition.
Recommends that:
• Governments give greater recognition to the importance of maternal and child undernutrition and their contribution to
development, as well as their legal obligation under international human rights law, and provide leadership in ensuring that
the appropriate policies and programmes are put in place, so that the essential nutrition interventions are implemented at
scale, and the most vulnerable households are protected in the face of unexpected economic and/or environmental shocks.
• Donors, foundations and other funding sources, while aligning and adapting global initiatives to national priorities, as
part of their assistance to those countries most affected by maternal and child undernutrition, give a far greater priority
to funding and facilitating at scale coverage of the essential nutrition actions as an integral part of poverty reduction and
health system strengthening.
• The UN system through its country teams give greater priority in its development assistance to maternal and child undernutrition,
supporting Member States actions to ensure the essential set of nutrition interventions at scale as part of the poverty
reduction activities, as well as realizing human rights relevant to nutrition, including the right to adequate food and to health.
• The UN take the lead in developing extraordinary measures to counteract escalating food prices, and ensure the capacity
to respect, protect and fulfil the right to food, especially of the most vulnerable, in the event of natural disasters and other
emergencies.
• All actors give greater attention to monitoring and evaluating programmes aimed at accelerating the reduction of maternal
and child undernutrition. Policies at global, regional and country level be reviewed, harmonized and monitored, with
a view to encourage integrated support to at risk families, and to promote and protect maternal and child nutrition. Furthermore
progress towards the achievement of MDG 1 should be reported against reductions in the prevalence of
stunting in children below the age of five, not just underweight.
• The upcoming reviews of the SCN and the global nutrition architecture, which are welcomed, should examine the different
structures and alternative approaches being used by other sectors.